Student led? Montessori? What to do when this happens?

[momsuz123]

Okay, so I am in year 2 of hsing...so still a newbie. I have been off to a little bit of a rough start with hsing with my 8 year old. To note, we are in the process of moving, so that could be playing a factor.

She is this kind of kid who will wake up and say, "mom, please let me read the Encyclopedia of History today". Okay, first thought, how awesome that she even wants to do this, and that being hs'd I could "work" this into our day. The problem that I am having though is, when she gets these thoughts, and wants to go down these different roads, it does throw off the day I had planned. Yesterday she was begging me to let her read "any" book and then present a written and oral book report on it.

 

I know, this is a good problem, but I can't just always let her do her own thing...or can I? No, I can't, because she would be heavy on the history and language arts, and light on the math.

 

Okay, I hope this made sense to someone...anyone.

 

Thanks!

[Ravin]

I'd try and set a baseline and then let DD run with what excites/motivates her. Something like, "sure, go for it, right after we do x for math."

Edited September 26, 2012 by Ravin

[thowell]

Just a personal opinion, but at that age I would not interfere too much if she is learning. Yes the basics need to be done but you also don't want to prevent her from learning what she has a desire to learn or kill that natural curiosity. Know what I mean? You could try blocks of learning rather than a strict schedule. This allows longer time chunks in certain subjects for fewer days.

[momsuz123]

Thanks for the advice already girls. Yes, the block schedule idea might be a good one. With me being so new still at hsing, I need to think out of the box for this one. I certainly don't want to stop her passion she has for learning...but I don't want to get into a situation where she thinks she can always just say, "mom, I want to do X instead".

Yes, saying after we do Y, then you can X is a good idea.

Any other thoughts?

[momsuz123]

I can understand where you are coming from because I have a child or two or three like that.

 

Have a school chat where you talk about how great it is that she is interested in so many different things. Come to an agreement on what you feel she must do every day (like math, spelling, grammar, etc.) but keep the list short. Write Language Arts instead of gram/writ/spell/hand--it does make a difference. Decide what subjects will be Mom-led and what can be child-led. Agree that Mom-led happens first and any time after is hers to pursue whatever topic or project catches her fancy. Decide ahead of time, alone, what subjects you can reasonably drop or combine and what are iron-clad. For example, here, math is not optional. It happens everyday right after devotional unless you are too sick to get out of bed.

 

Be willing to change an assignment to fit her ideas. She wants to read a book and do a report? Great! Make it one you had on her yearly assigned reading list already. Be flexible.

 

I have had mine on their own design entire suits of cardboard armour, recreate famous battles with Star Wars men, write letters to their favorite movie maker (and got a response!), create stories and poems instead of essays, build whole Medieval towns using pinto beans and a hot glue gun (well, that last one was my youngest brother but he was homeschooled, too. And the town was amazing.), check entire shelves of books out on the topic they wanted to study, read repeatedly history and science encyclopedias, and generally take my well thought out plans and trash them. What they learned instead is much more than my plans ever had in them.

 

This, up there, makes sense. So, did you have trouble fitting "it all in" with allowing your kiddos to go off on these rabbit trails?

[ssavings]

Do you currently do any "strewing" (to use the unschooling term, although most child-led philosophies use something similar to this) for her?

 

My kids are younger than yours, but we do something similar - we have a few mom-created subjects (math, language arts, religion), and tend to be somewhat more "child led" on the rest.

 

However, to provide some "suggestion" and guidance for them, I do a lot of strewing! I use Montessori materials, Waldorf materials, conventional manipulatives, living books, games, puzzles, etc. Really, whatever I can find. While they aren't forced to stick to/do any of the projects/games/etc I find, I make sure things are available for them - things to inspire them and engage them, to make them want to learn more.

 

If she's more verbal/language arts than math-oriented, have you considered maybe some living math books, or Life of Fred? Again, not to replace her curriculum, but just to provide to her as an option, something that could inspire her to want to learn more. Also, age/skill appropriate Montessori materials, and/or math-based board games might get her interest.

[Joshin]

I second the block style, we've used it for years! We have for daily blocks (my 12 year old now has five). We do Language Arts and Math in the mornings in two one hour long blocks. The first part of those two blocks is the curriculum stuff that I assign them, the remainder is free exploration. The boys sometimes read, write their own books, or choose to work ahead in grammar. For math they have made their own math games, spent time on logic games or tangrams, or done extra drill practice.

 

After lunch we have two more hour long blocks for history and science. I use guided independent learning for these blocks. We use Creekedge task cards, which are very Montessori in style, but fit in well with the classical mode of education. The kids get one card a week and it lists different tasks, from research to projects. We start the week with a research day at the library for their tasks that week, then they spend the rest of the week reading, exploring, following rabbit trails, and completing the tasks, which for example include narrations, timeline work, model building, written summaries and labs to name just a few. By using the cards I feel secure that they are covering what they need to but they are almost completely independent in how deep they go and how they do the work. They give a presentation at the end of each week over what they completed and learned.

 

You don't have to use the cards, you could use any good history or science spine and give a list of suggested tasks or have her come up with a special project on her own.

[abba12]

I'd figure out the bare basics that I require, and lay them out for my child. I'd aim for these basics to take no more than an hour or two. Beyond that, my child can follow their interests and run with it (have some backup projects for slow weeks) Get the basics out of the way first thing, and then just run with it